Remarks at the Signing of the Immigration Bill, Liberty
Island, New York

October 3, 1965

We have called the Congress here this afternoon not only to mark a very
historic occasion, but to settle a very old issue that is in dispute. That issue
is, to what congressional district does Liberty Island really belong--Congressman
Farbstein or Congressman Gallagher? It will be settled by whoever of the two
can walk first to the top of the Statue of Liberty.

This bill that we will sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does
not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily
lives, or really add importantly to either our wealth or our power.

Yet it is still one of the most important acts of this Congress and of
this administration.

For it does repair a very deep and painful flaw in the fabric of American
justice. It corrects a cruel and enduring wrong in the conduct of the American
Nation.

Speaker McCormack and Congressman Celler almost 40 years ago first pointed
that out in their maiden speeches in the Congress. And this measure that we
will sign today will really make us truer to ourselves both as a country and
as a people. It will strengthen us in a hundred unseen ways.

I have come here to thank personally each Member of the Congress who labored
so long and so valiantly to make this occasion come true today, and to make
this bill a reality. I cannot mention all their names, for it would take much
too long, but my gratitude--and that of this Nation--belongs to the 89th Congress.

We are indebted, too, to the vision of the late beloved President John
Fitzgerald Kennedy, and to the support given to this measure by the then Attorney
General and now Senator, Robert F. Kennedy.

In the final days of consideration, this bill had no more able champion
than the present Attorney General, Nicholas Katzenbach, who, with New York's
own "Manny" Celler, and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Congressman
Feighan of Ohio, and Senator Mansfield and Senator Dirksen constituting the
leadership of the Senate, and Senator Javits, helped to guide this bill to passage,
along with the help of the Members sitting in front of me today.

This bill says simply that from this day forth those wishing to immigrate
to America shall be admitted on the basis of their skills and their close relationship
to those already here.

This is a simple test, and it is a fair test. Those who can contribute
most to this country--to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit--will be
the first that are admitted to this land.

The fairness of this standard is so self-evident that we may well wonder
that it has not always been applied. Yet the fact is that for over four decades
the immigration policy of the United States has been twisted and has been distorted
by the harsh injustice of the national origins quota system.

Under that system the ability of new immigrants to come to America depended
upon the country of their birth. Only 3 countries were allowed to supply 70
percent of all the immigrants.

Families were kept apart because a husband or a wife or a child had been
born in the wrong place.

Men of needed skill and talent were denied entrance because they came from
southern or eastern Europe or from one of the developing continents.

This system violated the basic principle of American democracy--the principle
that values and rewards each man on the basis of his merit as a man.

It has been un-American in the highest sense, because it has been untrue
to the faith that brought thousands to these shores even before we were a country.

Today, with my signature, this system is abolished.

We can now believe that it will never again shadow the gate to the American
Nation with the twin barriers of prejudice and privilege.

Our beautiful America was built by a nation of strangers. From a hundred
different places or more they have poured forth into an empty land, joining
and blending in one mighty and irresistible tide.

The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources--because it
was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples.

And from this experience, almost unique in the history of nations, has
come America's attitude toward the rest of the world. We, because of what we
are, feel safer and stronger in a world as varied as the people who make it
up--a world where no country rules another and all countries can deal with the
basic problems of human dignity and deal with those problems in their own way.

Now, under the monument which has welcomed so many to our shores, the American
Nation returns to the finest of its traditions today.

The days of unlimited immigration are past.

But those who do come will come because of what they are, and not because
of the land from which they sprung.

When the earliest settlers poured into a wild continent there was no one
to ask them where they came from. The only question was: Were they sturdy enough
to make the journey, were they strong enough to clear the land, were they enduring
enough to make a home for freedom, and were they brave enough to die for liberty
if it became necessary to do so?

And so it has been through all the great and testing moments of American
history. Our history this year we see in Viet-Nam. Men there are dying--men
named Fernandez and Zajac and Zelinko and Mariano and McCormick.

Neither the enemy who killed them nor the people whose independence they
have fought to save ever asked them where they or their parents came from. They
were all Americans. It was for free men and for America that they gave their
all, they gave their lives and selves.

By eliminating that same question as a test for immigration the Congress
proves ourselves worthy of those men and worthy of our own traditions as a Nation.

ASYLUM FOR CUBAN REFUGEES

So it is in that spirit that I declare this afternoon to the people of
Cuba that those who seek refuge here in America will find it. The dedication
of America to our traditions as an asylum for the oppressed is going to be upheld.

I have directed the Departments of State and Justice and Health, Education,
and Welfare to immediately make all the necessary arrangements to permit those
in Cuba who seek freedom to make an orderly entry into the United States of
America.

Our first concern will be with those Cubans who have been separated from
their children and their parents and their husbands and their wives and that
are now in this country. Our next concern is with those who are imprisoned for
political reasons.

And I will send to the Congress tomorrow a request for supplementary funds
of $12,600,000 to carry forth the commitment that I am making today.

I am asking the Department of State to seek through the Swiss Government
immediately the agreement of the Cuban Government in a request to the President
of the International Red Cross Committee. The request is for the assistance
of the Committee in processing the movement of refugees from Cuba to Miami.
Miami will serve as a port of entry and a temporary stopping place for refugees
as they settle in other parts of this country.

And to all the voluntary agencies in the United States, I appeal for their
continuation and expansion of their magnificent work. Their help is needed in
the reception and the settlement of those who choose to leave Cuba. The Federal
Government will work closely with these agencies in their tasks of charity and
brotherhood.

I want all the people of this great land of ours to know of the really
enormous contribution which the compassionate citizens of Florida have made
to humanity and to decency. And all States in this Union can join with Florida
now in extending the hand of helpfulness and humanity to our Cuban brothers.

The lesson of our times is sharp and clear in this movement of people from
one land to another. Once again, it stamps the mark of failure on a regime when
many of its citizens voluntarily choose to leave the land of their birth for
a more hopeful home in America. The future holds little hope for any government
where the present holds no hope for the people.

And so we Americans will welcome these Cuban people. For the tides of history
run strong, and in another day they can return to their homeland to find it
cleansed of terror and free from fear.

Over my shoulders here you can see Ellis Island, whose vacant corridors
echo today the joyous sound of long ago voices.

And today we can all believe that the lamp of this grand old lady is brighter
today-- and the golden door that she guards gleams more brilliantly in the light
of an increased liberty for the people from all the countries of the globe.

Thank you very much.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:08 p.m. on Liberty Island in New York Harbor
before a group of several hundred guests who had crossed to the island by boat
for the ceremony. In his opening words he referred to Vice President Hubert
H. Humphrey, Representative John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, Speaker of the
House of Representatives, and Arthur J. Goldberg, U.S. Representative to the
United Nations.

During his remarks the President referred to Representative Leonard Farbstein
of New York, Representative Cornelius E. Gallagher of New Jersey, Representative
Emanuel Celler of New York, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, Attorney
General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts,
Representative Michael A. Feighan of Ohio, Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana,
majority leader of the Senate, Senator Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois, minority
leader of the Senate, and Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York.

As enacted, the immigration bill (H.R. 2580) is Public Law 89-236 (79 Stat.
911).

In late September Cuban Premier Fidel Castro had announced that Cubans
with families in the United States would be permitted to emigrate. The first
of these refugees began arriving in Florida by small boat on October 7, and
by October 18 the number had exceeded 700.

On October 31, 1965, the President approved the Supplemental Appropriation
Act, 1966, which included an additional sum of $12,600,000 for the Department
of Health, Education, and Welfare for assistance to refugees in the United States
(Public Law 89-309, 79 Stat. 1133).

On February 15, 1966, the White House made public a report to the President
from Attorney General Katzenbach which stated in part, "Although the Act has
been in effect only two months, it has already reunited hundreds of families
through its preferential admissions policy for aliens with close relatives in
the United States .... Another 9,268 refugees from Cuba arrived in the United
States during 1965. Of these, 3,349 came in December via the airlift arranged
by the United States and the Cuban governments. Some 104,430 resident aliens
were naturalized as American citizens during the year." The text of the report
is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 2, p. 220).